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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: chaos@*****.com (Steven Ratkovich)
Subject: VR2.0, a decker's comment
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 19:01:00 -0500 (EST)
>> > If I had a decker in the
>> > group I would buy VR2.
>>
>> I haven't read the whole thing yet..But so far I really like the things I
>> have seen in it..It seems a whole lot simpler..of course I haven't had to use
>> it yet either...
>
>I haven't read it all either, our group uses NPC's for most of it's
>decking needs. (Granted they pay through their bio-ware nostrils for it
>;o) But the rules do seem to make decking less complicated and a whole
>lot quicker. Also, I love the optional SOTA rules...and the Otaku look
>like an interesting twist on the decker archetypes.
>
>
>
Well, here are my thought on VR 2.0, for those of you who haven't bought it
yet or read it all the way through...

In general, it is a very well done and well written book. They clarified a
lot of questionable subjects from the first VR, BUT... They changed too much...

I have been playing an Ork Decker named Bull for around 3 years now very
regularly... I believe he's topped 300 karma... by changing the rules as
much as they have though, it's forced me to completely change how my
character decked... That's nitpicking though. But there were suddenly
dozens of programs that never existed that were necesarry, the hack pool was
sliced in half, and the MPCP rules were changed, which meant my current deck
was worthless (i.e., oblsolete...) Now, I'm not complaining about the
changes, mind you. I understand that it was all SOTA. Things change...
But it was annoying to have to change so much after 2 or 2 1/2 years of
doing things one way and bukilding a guy up a certain way...

Other than that, though, once you got used to the changes in the deck
construction, most of it went fairly smooth. The combat is very cleaned up,
and in general it is easier and quicker to do...

I do have one major gripe about the new system, though. In the old VR,
syatems were mapped out with SAN's and NODE's and such... Now they
eliminated all of that, and everyuthing is reduced to sdearch tests... It
takes the fun out of decking, for the most part. I loved the concept of
exploring the systems, seeing the sculpted systems come alive, and now, it's
all one big mess... In our group, we ended up solving that by kinda
combining the two... It works well that way.

The only complaint I have now is that combat, for me, takes way too long or
way too little time. Bull is at the point where only MEGA black ice slows
him down, and a top notch decker is his only real threat. However, I went
up against a decker the other night, and we beat on each other for 15
minutes without harming each other... The GM finally crashed the system in
disgust... You can be too powerful...

Those are just my VERY unorganized and rambling thoughts, boys and girls...
hope they aren't too confusing...:)



Order is Illusion! Chaos is Bliss! Got any fours?
Not a flame, but a small glow:)
Message no. 2
From: RAY MACEY <r.macey@*******.qut.edu.au>
Subject: Re: VR2.0, a decker's comment
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 13:30:44 +1000 (EST)
On Tue, 10 Sep 1996, Steven Ratkovich wrote:

> The only complaint I have now is that combat, for me, takes way too long or
> way too little time. Bull is at the point where only MEGA black ice slows
> him down, and a top notch decker is his only real threat. However, I went
> up against a decker the other night, and we beat on each other for 15
> minutes without harming each other...

That exact same thing happened in my group when we were playing first
edition rules. That's why I stopped playing first Ed SR. I thought that
VRII was the best thing since sliced bread, because it actually partly
solved this problem.

One question though, while I'm on the subject. Why didn't they put a
limit on the amount of hardening you can have in VRII? Oversight or
deliberate?

Ray.
Message no. 3
From: chaos@*****.com (Steven Ratkovich)
Subject: Re: VR2.0, a decker's comment
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 00:49:28 -0500 (EST)
>One question though, while I'm on the subject. Why didn't they put a
>limit on the amount of hardening you can have in VRII? Oversight or
>deliberate?
>
> Ray.

Oversight, probably. We have stuck with the limits that VR 1.0 set up. Not
sure off hand what those were though...



Order is Illusion! Chaos is Bliss! Got any fours?
Not a flame, but a small glow:)
Message no. 4
From: bluewizard@*****.com (Steven A. Tinner)
Subject: Re: VR2.0, a decker's comment
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 01:00:26 -0500 (EST)
>One question though, while I'm on the subject. Why didn't they put a
>limit on the amount of hardening you can have in VRII? Oversight or
>deliberate?

Not sure why, but it really does make things difficult.
IMHO they didn't limit deckers on hardening, because all it really costs is
money.
If you have the cash, why couldn't you build a tank for a deck?
I agree that they should have done something to improve the game balance,
but "Que sera, etc." :-)


FAMOUS LAST WORDS
"What?! No pretzels?!"
Message no. 5
From: "Gurth" <gurth@******.nl>
Subject: Re: VR2.0, a decker's comment
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 11:36:25 +0100
Steven Ratkovich said on 0:49/12 Sep 96...

> Oversight, probably. We have stuck with the limits that VR 1.0 set up. Not
> sure off hand what those were though...

Max Hardening in VR1 is equal to one-half MPCP rating, rounded down
(p.27). I think there is no limit on Hardening because few things in
VR2 are limited, except I/O Speed and Response Increase.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Tourist, Rincewind had decided, meant 'idiot'.
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-

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